T-Mobile drops Lifeline offering for low-income customers

T-Mobile is dropping its Lifeline service, a subsidy program to help low-income people afford vital communications services. The company has a total of 4.4 million Lifeline customers.

“We don’t think Lifeline is a valuable or sustainable product for our base,” T-Mobile’s Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said. The people who rely on Lifeline to afford T-Mobile service would certainly disagree.

T-Mobile has a history of making corporate decisions that harm its customers. Earlier this year, Change to Win research found that overly-aggressive sales metrics and intense pressure at T-Mobile create incentives which put customers at risk for fraudulent enrollment: unauthorized services, unrequested equipment, and additional “ghost” lines unknowingly added to their accounts. The watchdog filed a complaint at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the FCC.

Links:

CFO: ‘Non-sustainable’ T-Mobile Lifeline Business to be Phased Out (Telecompetitor, June 8, 2017)

Consumer group wants CFPB probe of T-Mobile’s unethical sales practices, fraud (Speed Matters, Jan. 4, 2017)